1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and an information providing method.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-150533, filed Jul. 4, 2012, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, wireless communication systems have been implemented in plants, factories, or the like. In such a wireless communication system, site apparatuses (a measurement unit, an operation unit) called “wireless field apparatuses” which can perform wireless communication are provided in a plant or the like, and control signals for controlling the wireless field apparatuses, measurement signals acquired by the wireless field apparatuses, and the like, are transmitted via a wireless communication network. The communication standard used for such a wireless communication system includes, for example, ISA100.11a, which is the wireless communication standard for industrial automation and defined by an ISA (international society of automation).
For wireless devices such as the above wireless field apparatus to participate in the wireless communication network, it is necessary to perform a process called “provisioning” on the wireless device, and previously set information required for participating in the wireless communication network (provisioning information). Here, the provisioning information includes, for example, a device tag allocated to each wireless device, an ID of the wireless communication network in which a wireless device tries to participate, and the like.
Provisioning methods include OTA (over the air) provisioning and OOB (out-of-band) provisioning. The OTA provisioning is a method such that provisioning is performed via the wireless communication network in which a wireless device is trying to participate. On the other hand, the OOB provisioning is a method such that provisioning is performed using a communication means different from the wireless communication network in which the wireless device is trying to participate (for example, serial communication, such as infrared communication and RS-232C).
Shuji Yamamoto et al. “Field Wireless Solution Based on ISA100.11a to Innovate Instrumentation” and “World's First Wireless Field Instruments Based on ISA100.11a”, Yokogawa Technical Report, Vol. 53, No. 2, 2010, disclose an example of a communication system in which control signals for controlling wireless field apparatuses, measurement signals acquired by the wireless field apparatuses, and the like, are transmitted via a wireless communication network based on the above communication standard ISA100.11a. Additionally, the former document “Field Wireless Solution Based on ISA100.11a to Innovate Instrumentation” also discloses a provisioning device (apparatus parameter setting tool) that performs provisioning on a wireless field apparatus trying to participate in the wireless communication network.
Regardless of whether the provisioning is OTA provisioning or the OOB provisioning, the provisioning is performed basically by the following steps (S1) to (S5). Here, in a case where it is necessary to perform provisioning on multiple wireless devices, the following steps (S1) to (S5) are repeated a number of times equal to the number of wireless devices.
(S1) An operator acquires identification information from the wireless device by operating a device for performing provisioning (hereinafter, a “provisioning device”).
(S2) The operator refers to a white list (a correspondence table in which identification information of a wireless device is associated with provisioning information to be set to the wireless device), and specifies provisioning information to be set to the wireless device corresponding to the acquired identification information.
(S3) The operator inputs the specified provisioning information to the provisioning device.
(S4) By operating the provisioning device, the operator sets to the wireless device, the provisioning information input to the provisioning device.
(S5) The operator confirms whether or not the provisioning succeeds (whether or not setting of the provisioning information to the wireless device is successfully completed).
Here, provisioning includes provisioning for setting new provisioning information to the wireless device to which the provisioning information has been set (hereinafter, “reprovisioning”), in addition to the provisioning for setting provisioning information to the wireless device to which the provisioning information has not been set. The reprovisioning is performed in a case where a wireless device having been subjected to the provisioning is unable to participate in a wireless communication network for some reason, in a case where a wireless device participating in a wireless communication network is reallocated to another wireless communication network, or the like.
The reprovisioning is performed also in a case where the state of a wireless device is returned to the original state. For example, in a case where a wireless device previously subjected to reprovisioning is unable to participate in the wireless communication network for some reason, reprovisioning is newly performed to return the state of that wireless device to the state as before the reprovisioning.
Similar to the provisioning, the reprovisioning is performed basically by the above steps (S1) to (S5). For this reason, each time reprovisioning is necessary, an operator has to repeat similar steps, thus causing low work efficiency. Additionally, similar to the provisioning, reprovisioning requires that an operator specify provisioning information by referring to the white list, and input the specified provisioning information to a provisioning device, thereby making it likely to cause erroneous operation.